Home Forums Hunting & Shooting AR and Tactical Rifles Pencil barrel or not?

I bought a green mountain 18" rifle length gas tube barrel to try for tight groups at 200 yds. While it is more accurate, I think I prefer the 16" pencil profile. The factory chrome lined bushmaster barrel is plenty accurate for anything I'd use it for. It does get hot faster, but cools faster. Not even trying to chase tight groups anymore. If I swap it back what should I sell the GM barrel for? Should I just keep it as an extra? GM52. 223 wylde.

I have a bcm 14.5 lwt midlength and love it.

A lot of guys running AR's stopped chasing tight groups. Get a 20", if you decide you want to start chasing again. HBAR preferably. If you are just plinking, screwing around or want something for self defense, anything will work. I'd go light in that case.

That's what I'm thinking, and just keep the GM barrel in case things become scarce.

My fave is an 18" lightweight/pencil contour. I have not seen many AR barrels that would not shoot MOA with ammo they liked, but ammo preference from barrel to barrel can vary hugely.

If you are seeing a big difference between your 16" and 18" my first suggestion is to try different ammo in the 16". If you feel sufficiently motivated, drop the scratch on some 68/69gr stuff or some 75/77 gr stuff. Maybe you've already done that.

As BSA said the most accurate ones I've seen were all medium to heavy contours but the differences (vs a quality lightweight contoured barrel) didn't become glaringly apparent until you were shooting longer strings.

Did someone say pencil barrel?

I started with a 16” Colt HBAR and while it shot great, I hated it the first time I picked up an SP-1 carbine. I wound up with a Bushmaster super light and it was my GP carbine. I still had the HBAR and added a couple of SPR’s and a few other heavier barrels but soon realized every time I was headed out to hunt or just kick around, I grabbed the light weight.

Fast forward 20 something years and I now have all pencil barrels save 1, 18” Criterion Hybrid barrel. While not a true light weight, it’s not heavy. None of mine are gonna win any high power matches but they all do 1.5 moa or dang close to it. (The Criterion is just under moa and seems to be getting better.)

But unless you’re shooting groups, a good pencil barrel will not let you down.

I swapped it back, and put GM barrel in classifieds if anyone is interested

Ballistic Advantage make a stainless fluted 16 & 18" barrel that are not quite "pencil" barrels but still light & the fluting on a heavier barrel adds some rigidity compared to a pure non-fluted version.

BA can be a little hit & miss in the accuracy department, but most are decent so long as you're not looking for Bartlien type results & they are priced modestly; AR15discounts.com usually has them for right around 2 bills, sometimes a little less.

I have a 16" & after some dicking around with it, it's actually pretty decent.

I like my heavier, longer barrels, but I really appreciate a light(er) 16 or 14.5" lightweight gun a lot.

MM

I needed room in safe, to many scoped rifles. I'm not trying to shoot tiny groups anymore. By swapping to factory barrel, and replacing scope with a fastfire 3 it's lighter and frees up some room. I do think GM are good barrels though

Next time Colt does a run of 6720s I'm in for one. My 6520 went to a relative in a "ban" state. Have a bunch of 20" A1 and A2 takeoffs. A1s hit a sweet spot for me. As if I care they won't stabilize 77s.

My main AR is a 14.5" mid-length pencil barrel. Its a sub-MOA shooter. I've consistently made hits out to 700 yards with it and disposed of dozens of critters. Its far more fun to carry around than the SOCOM profile barrels. Long strings of fire, there is some opening of groups, but not really shift. It also doesn't like suppressors all that much. If I gotta carry it, I like the pencil.